and he had started to wonder if she would ever let him go.
He was a fool to think Fredric wouldn’t finally put himself first, but he ached for how long it had taken. And he ached that his mother had used him as a weapon.
The breakfast had been fine—Corinne was more shaken than he was. She left after, and Julian spent the long morning letting his father talk it out. They drove, and they shopped, and Fredric’s voice eventually started to sound hoarse, but he was finally unburdened.
Julian felt a rush of relief, and then a small burst of fear because he worried about his father starting over after all these years. And yet, Fredric had begged him not to give him a second thought. “Focus on you, and that man you’re falling for.”
And Julian decided it was time to take that advice.
Pulling away from Archer, he ignored the faint tone of displeasure to lean over the bed, grabbing his trousers for the small, wrapped bag he’d tucked into the pocket. Three condoms and a travel size lube, and his fingers shook as he held it in front of Archer’s face.
“I bought this in front of my dad without telling him what it was,” Julian said, and he felt his cheeks to pink. “I think he knew though.”
Archer pressed his fingers over his mouth to hold back a laugh. “That’s…”
“I felt like a teenager trying to sneak alcohol past him,” Julian said, leaning down to kiss Archer again.
“Did that ever work?”
Julian grinned wider. “No.”
There was silence again after that. He imagined though that their bodies must have been making noise. He could feel it, in the way his kisses were wet, in the way that he felt the rich, heavy groan in his chest as Archer’s mouth closed around his earlobe and sucked, in the way that Archer pushed his own cock against Julian’s belly and rutted like he was desperate for friction.
Julian didn’t break apart far to get the little bottle of lube open, and he covered his fingers before pressing himself heavy onto Archer for his attention. “Do you want me inside you?”
‘Yes,’ Archer signed, and a shudder wracked through Julian’s body at the word on Archer’s lithe, perfect hands. ‘Please.’
Julian eased back, pushing one of Archer’s legs up toward his chest, and he dragged the pads of his first two fingers over the man’s hole, feeling it clench with anticipation. Part of him wanted to draw it out, to extend the moment into an actual forever—until Archer was nothing more than a writhing, begging mess, waiting for Julian to push inside him and then beg him a little more so he might never leave.
But he was too worked up for that now. Still, there was the promise of more, rich and burning in his chest as he looked down at the man beneath him. Julian got lost in the heat of Archer’s gaze, in the flush on his cheeks, the way his lips parted with every panting breath. He pushed his finger inside, slow and easy, letting the feel of Archer clenching around him drag him further into his own pleasure.
The head of his cock was throbbing, wet, pushing out of his foreskin completely. It dragged a sticky line against the inside of Archer’s thigh as he eased the other man’s leg back even further. He didn’t hear the grunt Archer made, but he saw it on his face, so he let up a bit and added a second finger.
It was almost enough—it was almost perfect. Maybe, he thought to himself as he added a third finger and watched Archer’s hole stretch around the bulk of his knuckles, maybe one day I can spend an entire afternoon worshipping him, opening him, kneeling at his feet to make every inch of him sing like the galaxies he loves so much.
“Julian,” Archer gasped, loud enough for him to hear it.
Julian felt the echo of pressure in his throat and realized he’d been speaking aloud. For a split second, he felt a wave of embarrassment, but Archer was pushing up onto his elbows again and the look on his face was such raw, intense need that it was gone in seconds.
“I need you,” Julian said, and Archer nodded frantically.
Swiping his hand on the sheets, Julian reached for the condom box, tearing the packet open with nervous fingers. It was lubed and slick, and it took him a second to get it on properly, and then he coated himself just a